Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate Michelle Herman will read from her book Stories We Tell Ourselves at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

The two thought-provoking, extended essays that make up Stories We Tell Ourselves draw from the author’s richly diverse experiences and history, taking the reader on a deeply pleasurable walk to several unexpectedly profound destinations. A steady accumulation of fascinating science, psychoanalytic theory, and cultural history—ranging as far and wide as neuro-ophthalmology, ancient dream interpretation, and the essential differences between Jung and Freud—is smoothly intermixed with vivid anecdotes, entertaining digressions, and a disarming willingness to risk everything in the course of a revealing personal narrative.

Stories We Tell Ourselves was published earlier this year by the University of Iowa Press.

Herman is the author of two collections of personal essays, the novels Missing and Dog, and the collection of novellas A New and Glorious Life. She teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at Ohio State University.

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is a graduate program in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this reading, call Jan Weissmiller at Prairie Lights in advance, 319-337-2681.

For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the Arts Iowa website.